August 12, 2025 • 9 mins
I had a chance to talk to Madison today from the Rails West Museum and I thought I knew about the Rail Road in Council Bluffs! I watched the series Hell On Wheels!
I learned a lot more! Take a listen!
I learned a lot more! Take a listen!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, It's Lucy Chapman, and thanks so much for hanging
out with me for another Here's More, And it really
and truly is Here's More because I have been to
this place and I'm talking about history on track. The
Historical Society of Pottawanammee County and Rails West History Museum
are teaming up and I want you to see it too,
And I've got Madison here with me today. Madison, thanks
(00:22):
for hanging out with me.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you for having me here.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We met. I think it was early summer, like in June,
very end of May. I knew where I was. Sometimes
I forget, In fact, I got lost. I think I
told you that story. I got lost getting there up
in the hills of Pottawanamee County of Council Bluffs, and
it's beautiful over there, oh it is. But we were
there at Rail's West Museum and I saw some amazing things.
(00:47):
The restored the refurbished mail what do you call them?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It was LBOD post office car car, yeah, train cars.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And that was really cool. And you were working on
some other stuff, the Historical Society and Rails West you're
working on restoring other parts of that train that's there
at the rails West.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, we have two locomotives and a few different train
cars at the museum. Our current project is working on
our dining car, but we also have plans to work
on restoring some of the other cars. Currently we've been
working on focusing on restoring the depot building itself, where
most of our museum collection is.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Oh, I think you were saying once that the dining car,
when that gets restored and how it goes, it depends,
that might actually be an actual dining car, not that
goes on the tracks, but that would be a dining
car there at the museum.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yes, that's the dream goal that we're working towards. It's
gonna take a while to get there, but we think
it'd be such a cool opportunity to have it open
for people to go in.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Oh, I'd be first in line and I wouldn't cut
So if I wasn't there on time, I'm not gonna
say I'm gonna be first in line if I'm late,
but I would. I would love something like that to
walk back into history. But you kind of live history
every day.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, So I met the museum and it's just so
wonderful being in such an old building every day and
being able to walk around and just imagine what it
would have looked like end of the day.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That building was built, rebuilt, built, and then rebuilt.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah. So it was originally built in the eighteen sixties,
kind of closer to Pearl and West Broadway, if you know,
Council Bluffs a little bit more. But that original depot exploded.
What happened was they were having a memorial celebration for
President Garfield, who was the president just passed at that time,
and there was a train color full of dynamite near
(02:38):
where they're having a celebration. Somehow it exploded and then
destroyed the building.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, that's the Secret Service that needs to have a
little bit of revamping itself. So the building was destroyed,
But were there people that were injured in that?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
There were no casualties. There was one ten year old
boy who was injured, but other than that, it was
just mainly the building that was destroyed and probably freaked
people right right right. But after that, they built just
a makeshift building where our current museum is built. But
it didn't have bathrooms, it didn't have electricity. It was
(03:13):
just not really a great building and then people in
the later end of the eighteenth eighteen hundreds were like,
we need to revamp and revitalize and have a new building,
and so then they did.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It was an actual operating depot. This isn't just hey,
let's put a building here and call it a museum.
This is the actual depot. Yeah, so that's really cool.
Well that's going on this Saturday. Rail's West History Museum
is at fifteen twelve South Main Street and Council Bluffs,
and use your Google or you can always stop and
ask somebody, Like I got lost. People in Council Bluffs
(03:47):
are amazing. They're so kind and friendly. You'll be able
to find it. Once I got there, I went, oh, duh,
I know where this is. I've been here before. The
event is coming up. It's a party on the platform
on Saturday, August sixteenth, from eleven to two. Tell tell
us a little bit about that as we I oh,
as we send off summer.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Kids are getting ready to go back to school and
parents are excited for kids to go back to school too.
But the idea is, you know, it's all about passenger
travel and train travel, so they're sending off summer to
go all board back to school kind of the fun
idea with it. So we'll have crafts, fun activities for
kids and games and of course the exhibits in our
museum and our train cars.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And is the squirrel cage then, is that involved?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
This will just be a rails west but the squirrel
Cage jail will also be opened during that time, so
you can hit both of them. Get a lot more history.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Give us a little history while we're talking about squirrel cage,
because this is the most fascinating jail building really that
I've ever heard of, and tell us why that is
so different.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
It is a really fascinating building. So when you see
it from the outside it's right next to the Union
Pacific Museum, the outside of the building doesn't really look
different from a normal building that you would see that
was built in the late eighteen hundreds. But actually when
you go inside there is the jail at SA, which
is a three story rotating jail. It would have had
sixty cells in total. I believe the whole thing would
(05:06):
have rotated Originally, it doesn't rotate anymore, but it's one
of the largest ones built. It was really the state
of the art at its time.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
It would be state of the art today. Yeah, you
think about it, not the whole building, but the whole
inside of the building. But the building its foundation didn't rotate.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Building itself didn't rotate. It's the kind of on the inside.
It's almost like a turntable or something. It would have
had an access point in the middle and then turned around.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
It was so but it was so that they could
get to the prisoners, whether letting them in or letting
them out, So they could do that without opening other
any other prison doors.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, with opening other prison doors. But then also there's
only one guy running the jail, so it's one person
overseeing up to sixty people in there, and so make
his job a little bit easier to buy just a
hand crank that he would be able to turn the
whole thing.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Wow, one guy.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, he did have like an assistant later on that
would help him, but originally starting off to be one
person manning the jail. But then also you live there
with his wife as well, so she would cook all
the meals, so it's kind of a team effort.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah. But I mean really, when you think about it,
when you think about the guys that are listening right now,
how could you bring your wife. Could you live with
your wife just the two of you with up to
one hundred and twenty probably wasn't always full, but maybe
up to one hundred and twenty Really bad guys, well
some of them are really bad. But how do you
(06:29):
keep your family because you have a rotating building?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, that's something that I think is so interesting. So
the apartment was on the very top of the building,
so above the jails, but I would like they have
it really set up really nice up there so'd feel homeye,
but you still might hear things and so you're still
like it's a weird juxtaposition. But I think it's so
interesting and definitely another place to check out.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Are there ghost stories?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So the main thing that freaks me out when I'm
there are the trains that go by because the tracks
are still in use today. Sometimes I jump when I
hear a really loud train sound and they're always going
through that area. I feel like anyone who has been
stopped in the intersection. No set too. But when it
comes to kind of weird things, like it's a building
that it was a passenger depot, so you would have
(07:14):
had a lot of people coming through, You would have
had soldiers getting ready to come to war. Some of
them might have not come back, so there's a lot
of people that would have gone through there and maybe
left stuff behind, and I mean probably left luggage behind
accidentally too.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Let's be honest, right your museum, the depot there has
been completely revamped and it's been redone, so it's already Madison.
I want to go back to the train cars for
just a minute, and we'll talk about the party and
get some more information about that. But I want to
go back to those train cars. What's your favorite one?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Oh my gosh, it is so hard to decide because
there's so many cool ones. I love a railroad post
office car. I think it's so unique being the transport
for the mail. But then I never thought that I'd
be able to be in one, so it's so cool.
It's from the nineteen sixties. It would have switched crew
right in Council Bluffs, which is really cool to think
that you're in a train car that would have stopped
(08:06):
in the place that it is. Another car that I
really like is our lounge car that we have at
the museum. It's called the Omaha Club Car. It would
have been on an Ezarbon train that would have been
mainly focused going from Omaha to Lincoln. So it's also
really cool to have a little piece of a local
history too. But that one is built in the nineteen
twenties and then really used in the nineteen thirties and forties.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I didn't know we had a train that went just
from Omaha to Lincoln. I think we need that again. Yeah,
so let's talk about the party at the platform for
Reels West History Museum coming up on Saturday the sixteenth,
Spin the prize wheel, when tickets to freak you of
riding at B and B Oakview Plaza fourteen and a
cold toss. What's a cold toss?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's gonna be like Cornhall, but make it train themed.
We're also gonna have some fun crafts at the museum
that kids can make as well some other activities and
you know, there's just so many things to explore and heck,
maybe even a real train.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
The'll pop by, Madison. Thank you so much for hanging
out with me on Here's more. It was good to
catch up with you.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Ah, good to see you again.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
That is just an amazing place to go and explore,
So I highly encourage you to take advantage of this
and get out there. It's a party on the platform.
Rail's West History Museum, August sixteenth, eleven to two, Madison,
thank you, thank you for having me.
Hi, It's Lucy Chapman, and thanks so much for hanging
out with me for another Here's More, And it really
and truly is Here's More because I have been to
this place and I'm talking about history on track. The
Historical Society of Pottawanammee County and Rails West History Museum
are teaming up and I want you to see it too,
And I've got Madison here with me today. Madison, thanks
(00:22):
for hanging out with me.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you for having me here.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We met. I think it was early summer, like in June,
very end of May. I knew where I was. Sometimes
I forget, In fact, I got lost. I think I
told you that story. I got lost getting there up
in the hills of Pottawanamee County of Council Bluffs, and
it's beautiful over there, oh it is. But we were
there at Rail's West Museum and I saw some amazing things.
(00:47):
The restored the refurbished mail what do you call them?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It was LBOD post office car car, yeah, train cars.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And that was really cool. And you were working on
some other stuff, the Historical Society and Rails West you're
working on restoring other parts of that train that's there
at the rails West.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, we have two locomotives and a few different train
cars at the museum. Our current project is working on
our dining car, but we also have plans to work
on restoring some of the other cars. Currently we've been
working on focusing on restoring the depot building itself, where
most of our museum collection is.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Oh, I think you were saying once that the dining car,
when that gets restored and how it goes, it depends,
that might actually be an actual dining car, not that
goes on the tracks, but that would be a dining
car there at the museum.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yes, that's the dream goal that we're working towards. It's
gonna take a while to get there, but we think
it'd be such a cool opportunity to have it open
for people to go in.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Oh, I'd be first in line and I wouldn't cut
So if I wasn't there on time, I'm not gonna
say I'm gonna be first in line if I'm late,
but I would. I would love something like that to
walk back into history. But you kind of live history
every day.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, So I met the museum and it's just so
wonderful being in such an old building every day and
being able to walk around and just imagine what it
would have looked like end of the day.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
That building was built, rebuilt, built, and then rebuilt.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah. So it was originally built in the eighteen sixties,
kind of closer to Pearl and West Broadway, if you know,
Council Bluffs a little bit more. But that original depot exploded.
What happened was they were having a memorial celebration for
President Garfield, who was the president just passed at that time,
and there was a train color full of dynamite near
(02:38):
where they're having a celebration. Somehow it exploded and then
destroyed the building.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, that's the Secret Service that needs to have a
little bit of revamping itself. So the building was destroyed,
But were there people that were injured in that?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
There were no casualties. There was one ten year old
boy who was injured, but other than that, it was
just mainly the building that was destroyed and probably freaked
people right right right. But after that, they built just
a makeshift building where our current museum is built. But
it didn't have bathrooms, it didn't have electricity. It was
(03:13):
just not really a great building and then people in
the later end of the eighteenth eighteen hundreds were like,
we need to revamp and revitalize and have a new building,
and so then they did.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It was an actual operating depot. This isn't just hey,
let's put a building here and call it a museum.
This is the actual depot. Yeah, so that's really cool.
Well that's going on this Saturday. Rail's West History Museum
is at fifteen twelve South Main Street and Council Bluffs,
and use your Google or you can always stop and
ask somebody, Like I got lost. People in Council Bluffs
(03:47):
are amazing. They're so kind and friendly. You'll be able
to find it. Once I got there, I went, oh, duh,
I know where this is. I've been here before. The
event is coming up. It's a party on the platform
on Saturday, August sixteenth, from eleven to two. Tell tell
us a little bit about that as we I oh,
as we send off summer.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Kids are getting ready to go back to school and
parents are excited for kids to go back to school too.
But the idea is, you know, it's all about passenger
travel and train travel, so they're sending off summer to
go all board back to school kind of the fun
idea with it. So we'll have crafts, fun activities for
kids and games and of course the exhibits in our
museum and our train cars.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And is the squirrel cage then, is that involved?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
This will just be a rails west but the squirrel
Cage jail will also be opened during that time, so
you can hit both of them. Get a lot more history.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Give us a little history while we're talking about squirrel cage,
because this is the most fascinating jail building really that
I've ever heard of, and tell us why that is
so different.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
It is a really fascinating building. So when you see
it from the outside it's right next to the Union
Pacific Museum, the outside of the building doesn't really look
different from a normal building that you would see that
was built in the late eighteen hundreds. But actually when
you go inside there is the jail at SA, which
is a three story rotating jail. It would have had
sixty cells in total. I believe the whole thing would
(05:06):
have rotated Originally, it doesn't rotate anymore, but it's one
of the largest ones built. It was really the state
of the art at its time.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
It would be state of the art today. Yeah, you
think about it, not the whole building, but the whole
inside of the building. But the building its foundation didn't rotate.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Building itself didn't rotate. It's the kind of on the inside.
It's almost like a turntable or something. It would have
had an access point in the middle and then turned around.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
It was so but it was so that they could
get to the prisoners, whether letting them in or letting
them out, So they could do that without opening other
any other prison doors.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, with opening other prison doors. But then also there's
only one guy running the jail, so it's one person
overseeing up to sixty people in there, and so make
his job a little bit easier to buy just a
hand crank that he would be able to turn the
whole thing.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Wow, one guy.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, he did have like an assistant later on that
would help him, but originally starting off to be one
person manning the jail. But then also you live there
with his wife as well, so she would cook all
the meals, so it's kind of a team effort.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah. But I mean really, when you think about it,
when you think about the guys that are listening right now,
how could you bring your wife. Could you live with
your wife just the two of you with up to
one hundred and twenty probably wasn't always full, but maybe
up to one hundred and twenty Really bad guys, well
some of them are really bad. But how do you
(06:29):
keep your family because you have a rotating building?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, that's something that I think is so interesting. So
the apartment was on the very top of the building,
so above the jails, but I would like they have
it really set up really nice up there so'd feel homeye,
but you still might hear things and so you're still
like it's a weird juxtaposition. But I think it's so
interesting and definitely another place to check out.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Are there ghost stories?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So the main thing that freaks me out when I'm
there are the trains that go by because the tracks
are still in use today. Sometimes I jump when I
hear a really loud train sound and they're always going
through that area. I feel like anyone who has been
stopped in the intersection. No set too. But when it
comes to kind of weird things, like it's a building
that it was a passenger depot, so you would have
(07:14):
had a lot of people coming through, You would have
had soldiers getting ready to come to war. Some of
them might have not come back, so there's a lot
of people that would have gone through there and maybe
left stuff behind, and I mean probably left luggage behind
accidentally too.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Let's be honest, right your museum, the depot there has
been completely revamped and it's been redone, so it's already Madison.
I want to go back to the train cars for
just a minute, and we'll talk about the party and
get some more information about that. But I want to
go back to those train cars. What's your favorite one?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Oh my gosh, it is so hard to decide because
there's so many cool ones. I love a railroad post
office car. I think it's so unique being the transport
for the mail. But then I never thought that I'd
be able to be in one, so it's so cool.
It's from the nineteen sixties. It would have switched crew
right in Council Bluffs, which is really cool to think
that you're in a train car that would have stopped
(08:06):
in the place that it is. Another car that I
really like is our lounge car that we have at
the museum. It's called the Omaha Club Car. It would
have been on an Ezarbon train that would have been
mainly focused going from Omaha to Lincoln. So it's also
really cool to have a little piece of a local
history too. But that one is built in the nineteen
twenties and then really used in the nineteen thirties and forties.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I didn't know we had a train that went just
from Omaha to Lincoln. I think we need that again. Yeah,
so let's talk about the party at the platform for
Reels West History Museum coming up on Saturday the sixteenth,
Spin the prize wheel, when tickets to freak you of
riding at B and B Oakview Plaza fourteen and a
cold toss. What's a cold toss?
Speaker 2 (08:48):
It's gonna be like Cornhall, but make it train themed.
We're also gonna have some fun crafts at the museum
that kids can make as well some other activities and
you know, there's just so many things to explore and heck,
maybe even a real train.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
The'll pop by, Madison. Thank you so much for hanging
out with me on Here's more. It was good to
catch up with you.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Ah, good to see you again.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
That is just an amazing place to go and explore,
So I highly encourage you to take advantage of this
and get out there. It's a party on the platform.
Rail's West History Museum, August sixteenth, eleven to two, Madison,
thank you, thank you for having me.
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